Government’s betrayal over maintenance grants for poorest students

Steve McCabe has spoken out about the Government’s betrayal over the scrapping of maintenance grants for the poorest students.

Yesterday, Labour called on the government to abandon its plan to scrap maintenance grants for the poorest students in England and replace them with loans. The motion put forward by Labour to annul the regulations, which were sneaked through in a Legislation Committee, was narrowly lost meaning the changes will go ahead.

The change will mean that the poorest 40% of students going to university in England will graduate with debts of up to £53,000 from a three-year course. Even the Government themselves have acknowledged in their Equality Impact Assessment that their plan will disproportionally affect women, disabled people, older learners and BME learners.

Steve McCabe MP said:

“Back in 2012 the Tory’s assured us that we shouldn't worry about the trebling of tuition fees because they were increasing maintenance grants and introducing a national scholarship programme to help and protect students from the poorest backgrounds.

“Now they've abolished both and tried to sneak it through. They hid this right through the election period and they have no mandate for this change which amounts to yet another betrayal of our young people.”